We talked about sales development with Billy Brush the Founder and CEO of DarkHorse Sports Operating System. This is a sports operating system that uses AI to develop players.
1. How would you describe your company in an elevator pitch?
DarkHorse is a scalable benchmarking operating system leveraging the latest in AI & Wearable Technology to holistically develop, profile, and scout players.
2. What are you the best at?
We care deepest about solving the problem at scale. We want everyone to have access. This means the 12 year old boy from Czechia, or the 9 year old girl who dreams of going to Stanford or UNC from India. We are all about what Scott Sandell calls “extreme engagement,” which means the user swears by our product. In order to achieve this we have to get as close as possible to the user and execute our what it is they desire to be useful. We have spent several months now understanding the user to it’s core. We are more than just a product we are an environment / portal with services for the user to become better players and be identified. Technology for athletes from athletes.
3. How did you find your first customers?
Since I was very young, six years old, have had a passion for the game growing up and learning in Frankfurt Germany. Fostering this passion and sharing it with other players and coaches has provided the opportunity to engage deeply within soccer and basketball. In addition, I have coached for several years earning a USSF “A” license therefore, over the past many years have been able to make several friends within soccer. Within basketball and sharing our passion by chance connected us with Kristian “Kiki” Petesic, Head of Scouting within the NY Knicks, and this has opened up the ability to connect with several clubs and leaders within the sport at the youth and college level.
4. What are your customers saying about your product?
“DarkHorse is extremely simple to use, beautiful, and understands our needs.”
“DarkHorse cares about the player context and what people needs.”
“DarkHorse is more than just a stand-a-lone product, it’s an environment to learn, engage, and level the playing field by being identified.”
“DarkHorse, is going the extra mile to build in context and provide the first ever sports community which is safe, accurate, and reliable for youth all the way through until their first pro presence.”
5. What are your proud achievements so far?
We have 22 club/team partners in youth soccer and hoops. In addition, 15k+ users since March 21, and major investor rockstars backing, Scott Sandell, Hall of famer Harris Barton, and a shrewd hyper growth specialist Kapil Agrawal VA Darden MBA, CFO of Poshmark and business modeling at Uber. DarkHorse is looking to add to this arsenal of early angels and obtaining lots of interest for investment.
6. What is the next big thing in your industry?
If you look at the data from Robinhood when they rolled out a mobile app there was considerable increase in scalability. Strategically rolling out a first ever native mobile app for youth sports stats combined with expert branding the spring looks to bring onboard leaders who care most within sports who believe in the culture and philosophy DarkHorse embraces for youth and college athletes.
7. What are your plans for next 6-12 months?
DarkHorse is in the process of taking several lessons learned from partners and embracing their “extreme engagement” culture to the next level and commercializing their technology for soccer and hoops. Combining the AI and wearable and obtaining “data fusion” will be a first for this domain and provide a comprehensive picture of a player’s capabilities. In addition, developing player benchmarks and predictive play are additional key performance parameters DarkHorse plans to deliver as value for players around the world. DarkHorse intends to have >100k users in soccer and hoops by 2022.
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